The Validity of Hair Mineral Analysis (HMA)

Hair mineral analysis has been used in forensic medicine for decades. It is best While hair analysis has gained worldwide recognition as an analytical tool for receiving information about mineral patterns, drug abuse, and longterm toxic metal exposure, this analytical procedure has not been accepted by conventional medicine. In fact, this simple nonevasive and inexpensive test seems to be a thorn in the eye of traditional medical researchers. Go to your general practitioner and ask about hair mineral analysis. His or her answers will provide an interesting insight. It will tell you how well-informed he/she is regarding international reference material, how open-minded he/she is, and most of all how logical information is processed.

Every so often articles appear in scientific journals that attempt to prove that hair mineral analysis is unreliable. In their obviously biased writings, these "researchers" base statistical assessment on misinformation and questionable sample taking. No favorable research appears in their list of references, even though plenty would be available.

That is a shame, and clearly unfair for the following reason:

• we use the same sophisticated instrumentation and method development to analyse hair, blood, urine or water.
• we use referenced standard materials for testing hair to calibrate instruments, just like we do for testing blood, urine or water.
• like any other laboratory, we are inspeced by the state to receive our license. The inspectors check blood, urine or hair laboratory results. They are certainly not ignoring the procedures or analytical process we use for hair analysis. Hair analysis data is inspected as critically as blood or urine data is.

• Our quality control is equal to that of any other quality control used in the laboratory setting.
• Laboratory personnel has to meet the same qualification as that of any traditional laboratory.
• Hair analysis is a valid analytical technique that has provided important answers to puzzling historical questions, including Beethoven’s habits. Nearly 170 years ago, an admirer grieving the death of Ludwig van Beethoven snipped a lock of the great composer’s hair for keepsake and kept it in a locket. It is this strand of hair that is expected to provide key answers. Did the deaf composer use drugs? Was he suffering from syphilis? Did he die of arsenic poisoning or was his health affected by mineral deficiencies? Today’s sophisticated analytical methods can provide these and other answers, and explanations are often unexpectedly simple. For instance, during Beethoven’s time, mercurial drugs were used to treat syphilis and arsenic was used to kill rodents. In minute doses, arsenic was deliberately taken to increase virility and physical strength. Other toxins such as lead were ingested by drinking lead-containing water, causing a host of neurological and behavioral problems such as Beethoven’s feared moodiness and ill-tempered conduct.

If you want to save a health of your baby - your choise is organic bassinet mattress! . Best watch movies online on FilmFlick.com site . hardware inventory system The 582 strands of hair recently auctioned off at Sotheby’s are expected to provide important information regarding Beethoven’s biochemical makeup and its link to behavior. Researchers William Walsh and Ronald Isaacson have been studying the relationship between body chemistry and behavior for decades. They have published an impressive amount of data, including the relationship between toxic elements and hyperactivity. They recognized that heavy metal exposure is higher in people prone to violent behavior and that a specific pattern of toxic exposure and mineral deficiencies is seen among death-row inmates. The researchers also noticed what they consider a "genius pattern," characterized by extraordinarily high levels of copper and sodium but low zinc levels in hair. Individuals with this type of hair mineral pattern are often highly intelligent and a bit eccentric, Walsh said. The scientists documented that hair mineral analysis is a valid test of body mineral concentration when used appropriately. "Hair is a dairy of what is going on in your body," Isaacson said. After decades of studying chemicals in hair and associating mineral patterns with behavior, the researchers opened the HRI Pfeiffer Treatment Center seven years ago. It aims at treating biochemical problems, and a strand of hair often reveals the cause of psychiatric ailments that did not respond to other, more conventional treatment.

One of the principal factors in hair analysis is the accessibility of hair to the external environment. Contamination can occur from air, water, perspiration, shampoos, dyes and other hair preparations; however, washing techniques utilized by laboratories alleviate these problems. Hair analysis is an ideal complement to serum and urine as a diagnostic tool when the hair sample preparation eliminates environmental contamination.

• If the laboratory of your choice does not use a procedure that properly cleanses hair samples prior testing, the analytical data can be falsely elevated due because the environmental contamination has not been properly removed.
• Because not all laboratories take the time to properly clean and prepare samples, a comparison of laboratory results will reveal differences.

INVESTIGATE LABORATORIES

• ASK FOR SAMPLE PREPARATION PROCEDURES
• ASK FOR QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES
• ASK WHAT QUALITY CONTROLS ARE USED THAT DIRECLY CORRELATE WITH HAIR SAMPLES

If you have more questions, let us know.

Versieck J., Cornelis R., Trace Elements in Human Plasma or Serum. CRC Press 1989.

Kaplan AL. Pesce AJ. Clinical Chemistry, 2^nd ed. Mosby Co.

Thomas L, Labor und Diagnose. 4.ed. Med Verlagsges Marburg, 1982.

Valkovic V. Human Hair Vol I & II. CRC Press 1988